2016 was a pretty horrible year if you were over 50 and had any sort of fame attached to your name or if you were a gorilla at the Cincinnati Zoo. We miss you, Harambe.
But, other than the ever-present obituaries in our newspapers, 2016 was actually, honestly, a lovely year.
Video games especially had a banner year. So, to prove to you all yet again that I'm a huge nerd boy, here are my top five favorite games from 2016.
5. Inside
The spiritual successor to Limbo, Inside is a wonderfully bleak, non-verbal puzzle adventure. One of the prettiest to look at games of this year, Inside's monochromatic but also not color pallet is hypnotic and easy on the eyes, making it hard to look away. The ever-present Orwellian enemies and backdrop and the unique, inventive and simple puzzle designs allows Inside to build to a climax that may be the most beautifully poetic ending we've seen in a long time. It's not a long play, but if you've got four hours to spare you should not miss Inside.
4. Dark Souls 3
I struggled with putting this on my list at all, as many feel that Dark Souls 3 represents an underwhelming, if not totally awful, entry in the Soulsborne family. But to me, From Software bringing over all that they learned from the PS4 exclusive Bloodborne was an incredibly successfully move. Dark Souls 3 has some of my favorite boss fights of the whole series in the Soul of Cinder and the Abyss Watchers. None of the weapons or armor felt like the de facto most powerful I would be able to find, and it encouraged me to try out different combinations and play styles. It's one of the first in the series that had a myriad of different boss types, instead of all knights or all demons or all beasts. And, if I'm being totally honest, I didn't mind the fan service. In an extensive story as disjointed and utterly mysterious as that of the Dark Souls universe, the fan service felt fun and refreshing, instead of being left in the cold to decipher what you could as was previously done.
3. DOOM
I'd be insane if I left DOOM off my list. A break-out hit for the year, DOOM was the bright, white light that the FPS genre desperately needed. With so many shooters so intensely focused on serious, world-threatening narratives, it was incredibly enjoyable to have DOOM's sole focus been demon slaying. Demons are invading Mars. Why? Because. Now go kill as many as you can. An incredible entry into a classic series, DOOM is just fun to play. It's serious without being too full of itself. It knows exactly what it is. The bone-crunching ultra-violence and heavy metal soundtrack pile on to gameplay that encourages you to keep playing as quickly and as aggressively as possible. The end result is something that gets your blood pumping and your smile widening.
2. Overwatch
Blizzard has the habit of redefining what a genre can be. They keep doing it with every expansion to World of Warcraft and they did it again with Overwatch. So many MOBA titles fall into a trap of being overly complicated. They are too many heroes too choose from and too many different ways that all these different hero combinations and gold collection/spending can cause you to fall behind and lose a 40 minute game in the first few minutes. New players are left in the dust of this cyclical self-service. Overwatch is simple without being easy, it's diverse without being dizzying and it's unique without being campy. It's wonderfully pleasing to look at and the short matches make for quick, non-committal games. It's relaxing to play a MOBA that isn't wholly decided on who gets first blood. We've had "WOW Killer" MMOs for a while now and none of them have been able to strike a killing blow. I think "Overwatch Killer" may be a new phrase coined in the next few years with similar results.
1. Dishonored 2
The original Dishonored is, for me, a classic game. It's the game that all other stealth games had been trying to be for so many years. Dishonored 2 may be up with Mass Effect 2 as one of the best sequels of all time. Everything that made the original such an overarching artistic and gameplay success gets turned up a notch. Simply put; Dishonored 2 is badass. You can feel just by looking at a level the dozen or so ways you could complete the objective. You can feel yourself get more and more deadly or stealthy as you progress. The color palette gets a sunny and blood flavored makeover but stays so deliciously muted. The ballet from stealth to action flows in beautiful motion, no matter which character or which powers you're playing with. And several missions, specifically The Clockwork Mansion and A Crack in the Slab, are undoubtedly some of the most cleverly designed levels of any game to date. Before I even had the game in my hands I had five separate playthroughs planned out. It's a world that feels alive and violent and dystopian. It's a world that encourages exploration and experimentation. It's the best, and my favorite, game of 2016.
